The shrieking shack
by mkanda
Summary: The villagers of Hogsmeade and the students of Hogwarts are shocked when the shrieking shack starts shrieking again. Only two people know why. Please read and review! Chapter 11 up!
1. Prologue

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As the professors of Hogwarts school approached the Hogsmeade pub for their monthly drink, Dumbledore heard a strange sound. It sounded like loud shrieks, but whether they were of pain or pleasure he didn't know. He left the other teachers as they walked into the Hogs Head and strode up the path towards the sound. The other teachers didn't notice and just walked in. 

Albus walked all the way up the hill between the small houses and shops, curious about the sound. As he got to the top of the hill, the reality of it set in. Walking closer to the barbed wire fence, he heard cries and screams.

The sound was coming from the Shrieking Shack.

The news of the return of the screaming from the shack travelled around the town and Hogwarts school like wildfire. Everyone thought that the evil spirits of the past had returned.

But only two students knew the truth. Those students were Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.


	2. A new spell

Hey people! Thankyou to our reviewers, it made our day! Now onto the story!

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Earlier that year…

"Harry! Ron!"

The two tall boys looked around at their names, and through the busy crowd of people inside platform nine and three quarters saw a familiar face beaming at them, as she tried to push through a chatting bunch of fourth years.

"Hi Hermione!" Harry called back, and grinning broadly, pulled her through the now disgruntled group of girls.

Ron just stared at her. Though Hermione's face was familiar, no other part of her appearance seemed to be to him. He tried to stop himself staring at her chest, and look instead at her eyes, which were framed with a large amount of eye shadow, making them really pretty. She had changed alright. Everything from her hair to her clothes. Her hair reminded Ron of how she'd worn it at the Yule Ball during fourth year, except now it wasn't pulled back in a bun, but gracefully falling halfway down her back. Even though she'd been with that Krum (stupid git) she'd still looked beautiful, though he hadn't admitted it. She was dressed in baggy denim jeans and a tight white jacket, and was looking at Ron a little quizzically, who hadn't said a word, and was just staring at her.

"Ron?"

Ron blinked foolishly and tore his eyes away from her to Harry's face. "Yeah?"

"Are you ok?" Harry asked with a side long look at Hermione, who looked like she was trying not to laugh.

Ron snapped out of it, realising how weird he must have looked. "Yeah, of course I am! Hey Hermione!" He said, looking at her as though he had only just noticed her and pulling into a big bear hug.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Okay then," he laughed, "Come on, let's go get some seats."

They walked up to the crimson train, with linked arms, but were stopped at the entrance by a tall, thin person with gelled back blond hair and two huge sidekicks.

"Oh great," the pale faced boy said, his drawling voice dripping with sarcasm. "If it isn't the golden trio."

Hermione's face hardened as she looked to her right, and saw that Harry and Ron were wearing the same expression. "Take a hike, Malfoy," Harry spat.

"Now, now where _are_ our manners," Draco Malfoy smirked. "Weasel Boy," He nodded at Ron. Ron rolled his eyes and shot a mock sweet smile back. "Boy-who-just-won't-freaking-die," he spat at Harry, whose face hardened even more, while Crabbe and Goyle guffawed stupidly beside him. Malfoy's face turned to Hermione, and she saw a hint of surprise in his eyes, which quickly vanished to be replaced by another smirk. "Granger?" He said softly. "Is that you? My, my we've grown up haven't we?" He said, taking a step towards her.

"What do you want Malfoy?" Ron said suspiciously, taking a protective step in front of Hermione.

"Oh Ron, please," Hermione said bossily, pushing him away. "I don't need you to protect me against Ferret Boy here."

Malfoy's eyes glinted dangerously, and he took another step towards her. Hermione resisted the urge to take a step back, as he leaned forward their faces were a foot apart. "If I were you I'd watch my tongue, Granger" he whispered maliciously, loudly enough so that Ron and Harry could hear him. "You may have changed on the outside, but I know that inside you are the same know-it-all Mudblood that you always were."

Slap!

Malfoy fell backwards into Crabbe and Goyle in surprise, his own hand on his cheek where Hermione's hand had just left a large red mark. Harry and Ron roared with laughter.

"I wish you'd stop doing that!" Malfoy yelped, forgetting his cool disposition for a moment as tried to get up from the ground.

"Come on, Harry, Ron," Hermione grinned as she pulled them through the door into the carriage. The boys were still laughing hard as they pulled their trunks through the carriages and earned a few raised eyebrows from the people sitting in the chairs. The three of them found an empty carriage and stowed their carriage away in the lockers. They relaxed, chatting about their holidays happily (except for Harry, who had of course had to spend it with his aunt, uncle and nephew.) Gradually the carriage filled up with other Gryffindors; Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil squealed with delight when they saw Hermione and her new look, and immediately ran up to her and started fingering her hair and clothes.

"How did you do it Hermione?" Lavender asked in an awed voice, feeling her silky hair as Hermione giggled and playfully tried to push them away.

"I think we'd all like to know that," Seamus muttered, blushing as Dean chortled at him. Ron said nothing.

Hermione smiled. "Do you like it? I got the spell out of _Witch Weekly_. It's only new: invented last year."

"It-it look's great." Ron stuttered to her. Harry grinned at him. He knew Ron had had a crush on Hermione since fourth year. By the look of it, every guy except himself in the carriage liked her. Even Neville was eyeing her. Harry didn't think he'd ever have a crush on Hermione. She was way to much like sister.

For the rest of the train ride they just kept chatting. Finally, several hours later they arrived. It was stormy outside, as usual.

"I might just stay in the train, it's cosier." Joked Ron. "See you at Christmas."

They all hurried through the rain, and Harry Ron, Hermione and Neville squashed into a carriage, Harry stroking the thestral's neck as he passed.

"You have no idea how weird you look Harry," Ron chortled, as he slid into the musty carriage.

Everyone was happy, because they were finally back.

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Yeah, it's a bit of a lame finish, but we had to update. Please review. Thanks. :-)  



	3. Sharing Dorms

Everyone applauded as the sorting ended. Dumbledore stood up to make his usual speech. He beamed down at them all as usual. "Welcome back old students and welcome to our new students. I just have a few short announcements to make before the feast can begin." He said cheerfully. "First of all, congratulations to our new Head Girl and Boy: Hermione Granger from Gryffindor!" The Gryffindors applauded and cheered madly, and Hermione felt a huge grin take over her face, as Harry and Ron patted her back enthusiastically.

" 'Course, they'd be mad not to," Said Ron cheerfully.

"Aw thanks Ron," Hermione smiled.

"Just like they'd be mad not to make me Head Boy." He finished in a mock serious voice. Hermione rolled her eyes as Harry snorted.

"And our Head Boy," Said Dumbledore loudly, as the hall quieted down. "Is Draco Malfoy from Slytherin!"

There were loud cheers and clapping from the Slytherin house.

"What!" Ron yelled. "Draco Malfoy! Head boy! Come off it!"

But Harry could see Malfoy's evil smirk on the table at the far end of the hall.

"Why would Dumbledore make Malfoy a Head?" Harry wondered out loud. "He's going to abuse his position even worse then he abused his prefect position!"

"Dumbledore's lost it," Seamus said blankly. "There's no other explanation."

"Yes, congratulations to both of you." Said Dumbledore cheerfully. "Now some other small announcements, the forest in the grounds is…"

Nobody really bothered to listen to Dumbledore: they were all too hungry.

"Hurry up," Ron moaned, his hand on his stomach. "I'm starving."

Finally the golden plates filled up with food. Everybody started eating and talking loudly.

As Hermione filled up her plate she suddenly felt a hand on her leg, causing her to almost drop the plate in surprise. She looked to her left at Ron. He was using his left hand to eat a bread roll, but his right hand was still tracing circles on her thigh. Hermione could hardly suppress a smile. She liked Ron a lot. Ron chanced a look at her and gave her a small smile in return when he saw hers.

Harry was sitting next to Ginny. She was looking very pretty this evening. Her red hair was in a messy ponytail, and she had a few strands hanging over her face.

"Are you the new captain?" Ginny asked smiling at him as she helped herself to potatoes.

"Huh?" He asked still staring at her. She smiled. "For the quidditch team."

"Oh. Oh yeah." Harry replied, sounding stupid.

"Cool, I was wondering… do you want to come to Hogsmeade with me at the next. Um. Time we go?" She asked, praying inside herself that he'd say…

"Yes! Of course I'll come with you," Harry said quickly. Why didn't you just ask her first you doth? "Sorry, I was gonna ask you, but, er, I was, er," he was cut off by Ginny pecking him on the cheek.

"Great!" She said happily. "There'll probably be one soon."

"Yeah." Harry said happily, his hand on his cheek where she had kissed him. "Yeah."

Eventually the golden plates vanished, and Dumbledore stood up. " Well it's getting late, and you have your first lessons tomorrow. So off you trot." He said happily. Prefects, will you please escort the first years to their dormitories. And could the Head Boy and Girl please come to the top table so I can show you your dormitory."

"Oh, damn it," Hermione spluttered. "I forgot. Heads have to share dormitories!"

"Damn it your kidding!" Harry and Ron exclaimed.

"You have to share a dormitory with that worm?" Asked Ginny in disbelief.

"Yep." Said Hermione grimly. "Ah well. See you guys." She walked up to the top table.

Malfoy was already up there, smirking. She shot him a dirty look as she walked up.

"Ah, Miss Granger." Dumbledore said smiling down. "Hi Professor."

"If you two will follow me, I'll take you to your dormitory." He said, and strode off in front of them, out of the Great Hall, Hermione and Draco almost jogging to keep up with him.

"Well, this will be a fun year won't it Mudblood?" Draco said sarcastically.

"Shut up Malfoy," Hermione said coolly. She wasn't going to take any of his rubbish.

Dumbledore continued walking up the grand staircase and then down a corridor. They followed him up an other staircase and around a corner until finally they came to a large painting of a happy looking witch with bright pink cheeks and two bright yellow pigtails, standing in a meadow full of cows.

"This is Penelope," Dumbledore said gesturing at the jolly witch, who was beaming at them as her hand waved back and forth furiously.

"The password is 'Daisies and butterflies." Dumbledore's beard twitched. "I'll leave you two to it." He strode off around the corner.

Draco snorted. "Daisies and butterflies?" He said, disgusted.

"That's the password," said Penelope cheerfully and the portrait swung open.

"Wow," said Hermione, stepping inside.

The room was richly furnished with Green and Red Sofas and Armchairs. A great fire was burning in the grate. Draco seemed quite unimpressed by the décor and walked down the corridor at the other end of the of the stone room. Hermione followed him down the corridor and found two large wooden doors, one which had 'Head Boy' written on it in large writing and the other which had 'Head Girl.'

Hermione pushed pass Draco into her room and gasped as she opened the door. There was a huge four poster bed in the middle of it, with a red and gold quilt and hangings. There were wooden benches and a large full length mirror placed around the room.

"Huh, I suppose this is luxury for you isn't it Granger?" Draco sneered from the door.

"Get out!" Hermione snarled and slammed the door inn his face.

That night she went to sleep dreaming about Ron and the way he'd touched her.

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Hey Guys! To those people who have been asking us to hurry up and make Hermione and Ron, uh 'elope,' don't worry that will happen eventually. He, he. 


	4. Team Work

Hermione woke up at seven the next morning. She immediately got up, went to her own private bathroom, had a shower, brushed her teeth and did her hair. At eight o'clock she left her room and walked down the corridor to the common room, to find Draco Malfoy in a green silk night gown snoring as he lay sprawled on the sofa. Hermione shuddered at this unpleasant vision and quickly walked out of the common room ("Ta-ta my dear," Penelope called) She found Harry and Ron sitting at the Gryffindor table eating breakfast.

"Hey Guys," She said as she slid onto the seat next to Ron.

"Hey Hermione," Harry greeted her and Ron smiled and gave her a one armed hug.

"How was Malfoy?" Ron asked as Hermione buttered her toast. "He didn't give you any trouble did he?"

Before Hermione could answer there was a loud whooshing noise and over a hundred owls flew into the hall. A brown owl landed in front of Hermione with the daily Prophet clamped in his beak.

"Oh, you know," Hermione shrugged, as she paid the owl. She started to unroll the paper. "He was just being him- Oh my Gosh! Oh no!" She laid the newspaper flat on the table so Harry and Ron could see the subject of distress.

WIZARDS KILLED IN MASS MURDER

12 Aurors were killed late last night when 'The Lord who must not be named' attacked a secret 'Order of the Phoenix' Hideout. An until recently secret organisation working against 'you know who.' While the Auror's names are not yet allowed to be released, Ministry officials have said no 'major' workers were taken. Ministry officials also tell us that they have no idea who could have possibly leaked the location of the hide out. And they don't know why it was that particular base, as there are several bases set around the country and the one in question was one of the more unimportant hideouts. The 'Lord who must not be named' sent ten of his 'death eaters' late last night. They were brutal and killed all they found, luckily they didn't find all. They missed a young Auror who wishes to remain anonymous. She witnessed them from a inside a locked room through the keyhole. She says that after the attack the death eaters stole a large amount of important files.   
Harry, Ron and Hermione stopped reading to look at each other, horrified. Hermione bit her lip anxiously, Ron looked like he was about to be sick and Harry swore violently under his breath. Hermione looked up at the top table and saw that all the teachers were looking worried and talking quickly to each other. Dumbledore looked angry. 

That day all over the school whispers were being passed from student to student so that by the end of the day everybody knew about the attack.

Hermione, wanting to get back to her room to get some homework done, left the great hall early after dinner. But as she walked through the large arch of the doorway she was approached by Ron, who was slightly pink.

"Uh, Hermione, can I talk to you for a minute?" He asked a little sheepishly.

"Oh, yeah sure," she said slightly surprised. She followed him to the grand staircase and to her great surprise he pulled out his wand and tapped a blank spot of wall on the side of the staircase and muttered something she couldn't hear.

Before she could say anything, a small hole appeared where he tapped and it grew steadily larger until it was large enough for Ron to pull Hermione through.

"Ron, what-" Hermione started but Ron cut her off.

"Shh," he said quietly. "The walls are very thin."

And Hermione looked around the room for the first time.

The roof was sloping, obviously because they were standing under the grand staircase. It was only small and very dark, but Hermione could still make out the dusty wooden floorboards.

"How did you find out about this place?" She asked, amazed.

"Fred and George," he said simply. "During the holidays."

"Wow."

"Look Hermione," Ron started moving a bit closer to her. "I, er-, um, kinda," he stopped, and took a nervous, shuddering breath. "I really like you" he said, and before Hermione could respond he lowered his head and kissed her on the lips.

All the worries about homework and Voldemort flowed out of her mind as she felt Ron's lips crush her own. She slowly and shyly slipped her tongue into his muth and felt him shudder with anticipation.

Just at that moment, the room shook as a stampede of students thundered up the staircase. Ron and Hermione both jumped in shock.

Ron swore as his head hit the roof. Hermione giggled.

"I think we've got to find somewhere a little bit more romantic." She said before pecking him on the lips and pushing through the wall of the grand staircase.

She walked back to the Head Room grinning widely with high spirits.

She was not surprised to find Draco Malfoy lounging around on the couch again, except in his school robes.

"Is it just me or are you the laziest person in the school?" She asked, disgusted.

"What, huh, why, what do you want Granger?" He snarled angrily as he stood up with a start. He'd obviously not noticed she'd entered the room.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Whatever, I'm going to my room."

"Okay, but don't you want to read the letter that Dumbledore sent for us?" Malfoy drawled, holding out a piece of parchment.

"What? Let me see it!" She tried to snatch it out of his grip but he was to quick for her. He moved the hand with the letter in it back and snatched her slim wrist with the other.

"What the hell are you doing!" Hermione shouted, trying to pull her wrist away but failing.

"Oh, our dear little mudblood has a bit of a bad mouth," Malfoy teased. Hermione tried to reach for her wand in the pocket of her robes but Malfoy yanked her forward, wrapped his other arm around her waist, dropping the letter as he reached for her wand. He grabbed her wand and threw it down with the letter. "Don't do that," he hissed, pulling her even closer. Their faces were now so close she could feel his breath on her face, and see his cold blue- grey eyes looking down on her .

"Why don't we do a little teamwork, eh?" He whispered maliciously in her ear, pressing his body against hers. "Just Head Boy and Girl…"

"No!" She yelled. " Get away from me you sick freak!" She ripped away from his arms and grabbed her wand and the letter as she sprinted for her bedroom. She could hear him running after her. As she came to her room she felt him try to grab her arm again but she shook him off and slammed the door shut.

"Colloportus!" she yelled pointing her wand at the door. Just as Malfoy slammed his body against the door it made a loud squelching noise. Though he tried and tried to open it, it wouldn't budge.

"Fine, mudblood!" He yelled angrily. "I wasn't going to do anything anyway! Honestly!" She heard him walk into his own room and slam the door, as she sank down on to the bed in shock.

Yay! We updated! Hopefully this will keep you happy for a little while. This story does have a plot, don't worry! We're starting uni so it's hard to update all the time, sorry if it takes to long but we're doing as much as we can.


	5. Put Some Clothes On

**Hey, thanks to all our reviewers. Here's the next chapter- our longest yet. Sorry for taking so long but the next few chapters are planned. :-)**

**We're starting to that disclaimer thing.**

**Disclaimer: We own none of these characters, all are owned by the fantastic J.K Rowling.  
**

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Hermione wiped her damp eyes and picked up the letter.

_Dear Miss Granger and Mr Malfoy,_

_Because of the restlessness of the entire school after incident of the death eaters last night, I have decided that we all need a pick me up. Could both of you please meet me in my office at eleven o'clock tomorrow morning to discuss plans for a school dance. The password is 'Toffee Apple.'_

It was signed by Professor Dumbledore. Hermione smiled. What a great idea. They hadn't had a dance since the Yule Ball. This would surely put the moods up in the castle…

The next morning at five to eleven Hermione excused herself from Charms and left for the Headmaster's office. When she got to the stone gargoyle she said the password and went up the stone staircase. When she knocked and entered the office she wasn't surprised to see Draco Malfoy already sitting in one of the chairs in front of Professor Dumbledore's desk, being careful to sit as far away from Malfoy as she could.

"Good Morning Miss Granger," Dumbledore said as she took a seat. "Now as you know everybody in the school is very uptight because of the attack a couple of nights ago. I think a great idea to lower the stress level would be to hold a school dance, as you know from my letter. What do you think?

"I think it's a great idea, Professor!" Hermione said enthusiastically.

"Yeah, sounds alright," Malfoy shrugged.

"Excellent," Dumbledore beamed. "Now I think the logical thing to do would be to hold the dance on Halloween, and maybe we could have two separate balls, one for the first years to fourth years, and one for the fifth years to seventh years?"

"Sounds good to me," Hermione said.

"Good. So I shall inform the rest of the school at dinner. You had better get back to your lessons. You may tell others about the ball, and also, don't forget you may ask others to the dance."

Once Hermione exited Dumbledore's office she ran down the corridor and up the stairs, because, as well as wanting to tell Ron and Harry about the dance, she wanted to get away from Malfoy.

As she was about to enter Flitwick's classroom, the bell rang and everyone came streaming out the door. She jumped to the side and grabbed Ron and Harry's shoulders as they passed.

"Guess what?" She beamed up at them. "We're going to have a dance on Halloween!"

"Cool," Harry said. Ron looked at him for a second, and Harry grinned and muttered something about having to be somewhere else before walking quickly down the hall with the other Gryffindors towards lunch.

"Uh, Hermione?" Ron asked a little nervously.

"Yes?" Hermione asked hopefully.

"Do you want to come to the dance with me," he asked apprehensively.

Hermione beamed. "Of course!" She said happily and hugged him happily. "Come on, let's go to lunch."

The rest of the day seemed to pass quickly, because in no time Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting down for dinner.

After Dumbledore told the school about the dance there was much applause and a few cheers. Hermione glanced over at the Slytherin table and saw Draco Malfoy watching her. As their eyes met he ran his tongue over his teeth. Hermione let out an involuntary shudder. She hadn't told anyone about what Malfoy had done the night before. Partly because, well, he hadn't really done anything. She didn't want to look like she was getting upset over nothing.

That didn't mean she wasn't scared, as every night she would now leave slightly early from dinner, telling her friends that she had work to do. She would then lock herself in her room, until the next morning when she would leave quickly.

The next few weeks passed in a wave of giggles, laughs, dares and anxiousness, as people asked others to the dance. Harry was once again bombarded with girls asking if he wanted to go to the dance. He had already asked Ginny, however, so he had a safe excuse. However Harry wasn't the only popular one, as Hermione found out one afternoon as she was studying in the library. In the short space of an hour she was asked by four different people if she'd go to the dance with them. First Seamus, then Dean, then Ernie McMillan from Hufflepuff, and a Ravenclaw who didn't even introduce himself! Finally she decided that she wasn't going to get any work done and went back to her dormitory, and on the way Neville asked her!

Not much more happened between Ron and Hermione. They shared a few more kisses, but they never really lasted long as they didn't exactly have anywhere private.

In mid October Ron and Hermione were walking to potions holding hands while chatting with Harry. They had left lunch early to make it to class on time, as they knew Snape would look for any excuse to take off points from Gryffindor. They leant against the wall outside the classroom, discussing what incredibly difficult potion Snape would pick for this lesson, when around the corner of the dungeon came Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle.

Malfoy took one look at Ron, whose arm was around Hermione's waist, resting on her stomach, and Hermione before turning back to his cronies and muttering. He turned back.

"Oh look what we've got here," he drawled. "The mudblood and the weasel. So does that mean if they breed they'll have a bunch of muddy little weasels?" Crabbe and Goyle laughed stupidly at Malfoy's lame joke.

Ron immediately moved his arm, his ears red. Hermione, annoyed, rolled her eyes. "Really witty, Malfoy," she said sarcastically. "That has to be a new number One."

"I'd watch it if I were you Granger," Malfoy sneered. "Or something might just happen, if you know what I mean," he said, a small, evil, smile on his face.

Hermione froze.

"What are you talking about," Harry spat at him. The bell rang.

"Oh don't worry Potter," Malfoy drawled and glided into Snape's classroom.

"Forget it Hermione, ignore him, he's just… you know… saying stuff" Ron huffed, not easing Hermione's anxiety.

They spent the lesson thinking up different ways of killing Malfoy, and drawing them in detail on a scrap bit of parchment. Unfortunately Snape saw this and quickly gave them all a detention and took twenty points away from Gryffindor.

Hermione bid them goodbye at dinner and later Ron and Harry made their way up to their common room. They gave the password to the Fat Lady, and walked up the stairs to their dormitory. When they were nearly at the door Harry put a hand up, motioning Ron to stop. He had a look on his face as if he was trying to hear something. Ron listened too, and heard a faint thumping noise, and something that sounded like… moans? Harry and Ron inched towards the door and were joined by Dean behind them, who was also looking at the door with curiosity. Harry reached out his hand and slowly turned the knob. As he slowly pushed the door open he heard a girl scream and scrambling noises. He quickly threw the door op.

"Damn it Seamus!" Ron yelled covering his eyes with his hand.

"Oh you idiot!" Harry also yelled turning around.

"Put some clothes on!" Dean also shouted, looking disgusted.

Seamus was standing by his bed, hastily pulling a pillow in front of his privates.

Lavender Brown was standing at the foot of the bed as well, and had twirled the curtains of Seamus's four poster bed around her body, so she looked like she was wearing a toga. Her blonde hair was messy and makeup very smeared. Both of them were looking very embarrassed. Dean, who was the only one still facing them, noticed their discarded clothes lying in between them.

"You guys are back early," Seamus gabbled. Lavender shot him an annoyed glance.

"I'm leaving," she announced. "Seamus, pass me your robe."

"Thankyou," she said as he obliged and swapped the curtains for the robe so that no one could see anything. She grabbed her clothes and stalked out of the room.

"Lavender!" Harry called. She turned around, he was smirking. "You left this," he said, holding up a lacy black bra. She quickly stalked back and snatched it out of his hand, before going down the stairs as quickly as she could.

Dean whistled. "How did you get her mate?" he asked, looking impressed.

Seamus didn't answer. Instead he picked up his clothes, and still holding his pillow, clambered on his bead and shut the curtains quickly. There was silence.

Later that night, when everyone was in bed no one talked. Harry broke the silence.

"So… was she good?"

Dean and Ron burst out laughing, Neville was confused.

"What?" He asked.

"Ask Seamus," Ron chortled.

To everyone's surprise Seamus started going into vivid detail. Too much detail for everyone else.

"Okay, you can stop now!" Ron said loudly.

"Aw, but Ron, you should've seen the size of them," Seamus sighed contentedly.

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**So what do you think? We know the dance theme is a bit overused now-a-days but we just had to use it!**

**Mkanda. **


	6. Events Of The Dance

Yes, here it is... the next chapter! Lol, sorry.

Disclaimer: All characters of this story belong to J.K Rowling. :-)

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Finally the day of the dance came. Everybody was excited, and since lessons only went until lunch that day, everyone was happily talking to people about what they were wearing, as it was an optional dress up. 

At six o'clock, Hermione went down to the Great Hall to open the hall for the first to fourth years. There was a large crowd around the door already, and Hermione had to push through for ages before she could actually get there. She caught a glimpse of the Hall as she opened the doors. It looked great, with the usual decorations but instead of the four long tables there were about one hundred small round tables like at the Yule Ball.

She made her way back to the dormitory to get ready. Dumbledore had requested that the Head Boy and Girl wear matching costumes for some unknown reason. Hermione and Malfoy had had a long argument over this: Hermione had wanted to go as angels or something alike, but Malfoy had downright refused to, he wanted to go as something darker. Eventually they compromised. Hermione was going as a 'dark angel' and Malfoy as 'the devil.' Hermione didn't really think it matched that well, but she was sick of arguing with him. She was just going to avoid him for the entire night, and have fun.

So she slipped into her costume, applied her make-up, and looked in the mirror. She almost blushed as she looked at herself. The costume was quite revealing. He was wearing a black lace dress which came to half way down her thighs. It was very low cut and off the shoulder, revealing a little too much of her cleavage in Hermione's opinion. On her feet she was wearing black stilettos, and of course, her legs were covered in fishnet stockings.

Her eyes were bordered with black eyeliner, black eye shadow and mascara. She was wearing cherry red lipstick. Her hair was out, with temporary black tips. She smiled at her reflection.

When the ball was about to start Hermione made her way down to the Great Hall. The crowd was even bigger then the last one. She found her friends and entered the hall with them.

Ron, Hermione, Harry and his partner, Ginny, sat down at one of the small tables as they entered. Everyone was chatting about what others were wearing, the decoration and what bands would be playing. Ginny was dressed as a fairy, a muggle fairy, she explained to Hermione. Harry and Ron hadn't bothered to dress up, but were wearing dress robes, Harry's were the same emerald green ones from the Yule Ball, and Ron was wearing the ones that Fred and George had gotten him a couple of years ago, they were a royal blue colour, and made him, in Hermione's opinion, look really handsome. Hermione was wearing her dark-angel clothes of course.

She squinted around, trying to see her fellow Gryffindor's costumes through the gloom of the dark room. She spotted Seamus and Dean chatting up Lavender and Parvati at the other end of the room. It looked like Seamus had gone as an Irish quidditch player, and Dean as a… muggle? Parvati and Lavender appeared to have dressed up as muggle fairies, fairies who didn't really wear much clothing, Hermione noticed. Very unlike Ginny, who had taken to the task magnificently in Hermione's opinion.

Neville blundered over to their table. The reason he was blundering was because he had dressed up as a ghost, with a white sheet over his head. The problem was he had forgotten to cut holes for eyes.

"Hello," he said a little gloomily. Do you mind if we join you?"

Hermione peeked behind him, and saw Luna Lovegood, floating beside Neville looking dreamy. It looked like she had dressed up as an Egyptian pharaoh.

"Of course," said Harry and Ron pulled up two chairs from the edge of the hall.

"Thankyou Ronald," Luna nodded and sat down in one of the chairs with the air of a royal.

Everyone was sitting down and Hermione saw with a flinch that Malfoy was sitting with his crew exactly opposite them, so she couldn't look straight ahead without seeing him. He had dressed up as a devil alright, and he looked even more evil then usual.

His normally gelled back hair was loose and hanging over his eyes. He hadn't actually worn devil horns, or taken a trident, but was wearing long red dress robes. He turned to look at her and gave her an evil grin, his cold eyes staring straight at her. Hermione winced and looked down at the table.

"Are you okay?" Ron asked, glancing over at her.

Hermione nodded and gave him a small smile.

Finally everyone was seated, and Dumbledore stood up from the staff table, which was still placed up at the end of the hall. Everyone was silent and he beamed down at the as usual.

"Welcome! Now I hope you all know that this ball wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for our excellent Head Boy and Girl. Thankyou," he projected as everyone cheered and applauded loudly. "So with no further speeches, I shall quickly introduce you to the band for this evening." He motioned towards a small stage around where the Slytherin table usually was, just to the left of Malfoy's table. The black curtains around it magically drew back, and girls started screaming as the saw the band, while the guys applauded heavily. It was Merlin's beard, a very well liked wizarding band. The lead singer, Jake, waved at them all and a couple of girls looked like they were going to swoon.

Harry rolled his eyes as Hermione's cheeks went pink as Jake winked at her. Ron just snorted.

"And now, to open our dance," Dumbledore boomed, "The Head Girl and Head Boy!"

"What!" Hermione gave a small outburst as the hall broke into applause again, and the band started playing a beat. Harry and Ginny looked shocked, Ron looked furious, Neville looked confused and Luna was clapping happily. Hermione looked over at Dumbledore in need of an explanation, but he was already chatting to Professor Flitwick. She glanced over at Malfoy and saw him grinning evilly as he stood up from the table and started to walk to the centre of the floor.

"You'd better go," Ginny whispered, giving Hermione a small push.

Hermione walked slowly to the centre of the dance floor, not looking back at the table. Malfoy held out his hand as she reached him.

"Shall we dance?"

"Shut up," Hermione said annoyed, and tentatively took his hand. He pulled her closer as the music began to play, placing his hand around her waist, under her cloak. Everyone was clapping along with the beat as Hermione reluctantly placed her arm around his neck. They started moving to the music.

"Oh, relax Granger," Malfoy said snidely. "You're so tense."

Needless to say, this didn't make Hermione relax.

Everyone was still clapping, and Hermione felt perspiration on her forehead. She just wanted this dance to end…

Suddenly she felt Malfoy's hand slide further down her back, under her cloak so none could see.

"Stop it!" She hissed in his ear.

"Now, now Granger, you wouldn't want to cause a fuss, would you?" He murmured in her ear. "I was quite upset when you left me the other night, you know." He pulled her closer. "If you do that again, I might have to do something to Weasley."

Hermione tensed for a moment, but not wanting him to see her anxiety, she forced herself to relax.

"Ron could take you on any day," she said coolly.

Malfoy laughed softly. "Maybe we'll find out."

Hermione really wanted the dance to end now. Malfoy moved his face to hers, so that their cheeks were touching. His cheek was cool, and Hermione could practically feel her own burning with the shame of it all. She couldn't move her head, he was holding her so tight, please let this dance end! His hand went even lower down her back, so that it was resting on her tailbone. He pushed her so close that there was no distance in between them at all. Hermione whimpered something, telling him to stop, but he was right, she didn't want other people to notice. They turned slightly, and Hermione saw Ron's face over Malfoy's shoulder. His expression was awful. He looked livid, angry, and shocked. She tried to mouth something, but Malfoy steered her so that she was facing the other direction.

"I don't think so," he teased. "Let's see how long he can stand it."

But at that moment, to Hermione's great relief, the song ended and another started. Hermione pulled herself away from Malfoy's grip and rushed over to Ron. She was sure that he was angry at Malfoy, not her, and she didn't want Ron and Malfoy getting into a fight, the night had been damaged enough, she'd just ignore Malfoy and have a good time with Ron and it would be fine. She reached him and he stood up, still looking at her furiously.

"Ron, don't worry about it-" she started but was cut off.

"I can't believe you!" He hissed. "I can't believe you did that!"

"What?" Hermione asked, confused.

"Oh I wonder," Ron said sarcastically. "For once 'Miss- know- it- all' is stuck without an answer."

"Ron, why-"

"Don't play stupid, Hermione," Ron said loudly, Ginny and Harry stared at them as they danced pass. "How could you do that with that- with Malfoy!" His voice didn't sound so angry now, but there was a hurt tone to it.

"Ron, no, you don't understand!" Hermione cried, close to tears. "Why do we always have to fight at these stupid dances?"

"Whatever Hermione!" Ron shouted at her again. Why didn't you just tell me if you wanted to come with him?"

"I don't want to go with him!" Hermione sobbed. "Anyway he's here with Pansy!" She motioned with a hand to an unhealthily thin girl, with long blonde hair and a very short dress who was presently staring love struck at Malfoy while he talked to Crabbe and Goyle.

"Like that matters to you!" Ron spluttered, not really noticing what he was saying. "Why don't you just go and kiss him then!" He bellowed the last part.

The hall fell silent. Even the band stopped playing. Hermione stared at him, shocked. He looked angry still, but a little guilty.

"You are so stupid sometimes _Ronald,_" she said softly, tears falling down her cheeks. She turned around and ran out of the hall as fast as she could. Ron watched her, looking upset. Eventually the band started playing again and people once more began to talk. Draco Malfoy excused himself from his table and no one noticed him sneak out of the hall. Harry and Ginny walked over to Ron.

"You are so stupid!" Ginny hissed, looking at him furiously. "Do you really think she'd do something like that with Malfoy? You ruined the evening for her, and she was so looking forward to it."

Ron bit his lip nervously. "Yeah well…" he couldn't think of anything to say. Harry was staring at him shaking his head. "Okay, I know I stuffed up!" Ron shouted at them. "Just, well, I was just jealous. So, what am I supposed to do?"

"Go apologise of course," Harry said, rolling his eyes. "She's crazy about you, Ron, you just have to apologise and I reckon she'll forgive you before to long."

"Yeah," Ron sighed. "You're right. See you guys later." He stood up and slowly made his way out of the hall, dragging his feet behind him.

Hermione ran as fast as she could up the steps of the Grand Staircase, tears pouring down her cheeks as she did. She heard footsteps behind her, running fast up the staircase after her. Guessing it was Ron, she ran even faster, not wanting to talk to him at the moment. She ran up the corridor and all the way to the Head Dormitories, stumbling every now and then, still hearing the footsteps, still crying. Finally she got there.

"D- Daisies and butterflies," She spluttered, and ignoring Penelope's sympathetic murmurs, ran into the room. She had intended to go to her room, but found she was just too tired and upset. She stopped next to the wall near the corridor and leant on it, sinking down to the floor. She pulled her knees to her chest and put her head on top of them, trying to breathe deeply and to think more rationally. She was overreacting just a little bit; it wasn't that bad of a comment. It was just that she'd been looking forward to this night so much, and now it was ruined. She was interrupted from her musings, by the sound of the common room door swinging open. She looked up in surprise. What? Ron didn't know the password.

But it wasn't Ron standing by the entrance.

It was Draco Malfoy.

* * *

Oh the suspense... The next chapter should be up reasonably quickly. Should. Notice the should. 


	7. Split Seams

Hey all, thanks to our reviewers, and sorry this chapter took awhile,(trust us, its well worth the wait) but we had a few exams.

Disclaimer:all characters in this story belong to J.K. Rowling

He stared at her. She stared at him. She knew she should get up. She knew she should get to her room. She knew she should run. She knew that if she didn't, something bad would happen. But she didn't do anything. Instead she just put her head back against the wall, staring ahead of her. She was too tired. He didn't look like he was going to do anything.

She was wrong.

He walked over to her. She struggled to get up, and stared at him defiantly.

"Leave me alone," she said quietly, trying to sound brave, but her voice trembled.

He ignored her and put a hand to her cheek. She flinched. He smiled, and drew back his hand. Her tears glistened on it.

"Why so sad Hermione?" He asked, smiling wickedly.

She flinched again as he said her name. He had never said it before. She stared at him in shock. This was bad, he had something up his sleeve, she just knew it. She tried to force her legs to move, but they seemed to be stuck to the floor. He smiled again at her look of bewilderment. He moved closer to her against the wall. Just then Hermione's brain seemed to turn on again. Malfoy, closing in, wall, alone… She gave a small cry and tried to dodge around him, aiming for her room, but to no avail.

Hermione screamed as Malfoy grabbed her by the waist and threw her onto the sofa. Before she could scramble off he swung a leg over her so that he was straddling her. He pushed her shoulders back and swooped down on her. His lips pressed hard against hers, his tongue delving into her mouth. This was nothing like when Ron kissed her… Ron. Tears sprung afresh to her eyes as she thought of him. Ron would save her, no matter how angry he was at her. She wished he was here now, she needed him so badly. She tried to fight, tried to scream, but she couldn't do a thing. His hands were holding her own above her head, she felt like she couldn't breathe, just taste the flavour of his essence as he lay on top of her.

One of his hands left the other and made its way to her leg. Hermione's eyes, which had been squeezed shut for all this time snapped open as she realised what he was trying to do. No, she wasn't going to let him! His mouth left hers and started to make its way down her neck. She took the opportunity to scream, loud and long. Malfoy looked up at her, and sneered. This was just so shocking to Hermione that she just stopped and stared at him.

"Scream as hard as you want Mudblood," he said evilly. "No one will hear, they're all at the dance."

"Please," Hermione whimpered, as his hand moved down to the bottom of her dress again. "Please, don't, please…"

Malfoy looked up at her again. He put his mouth near her ear and muttered, "Shouldn't have hit me, don't you think, bitch?"

"Oh, please, please, come on, this isn't fair, I just hit you, this is so much worse!" Hermione cried.

"If you keep on going like that, I will hit you as well," Malfoy threatened.

Hermione squirmed around, ripping her hands from his and taking the opportunity to slap him across the face. Malfoy almost seemed to roar with anger as Hermione fell from the couch onto the floor and started to scramble, trying to get up, towards her dorm. He ran after her, grabbing her hair and pulling her head back. She stared into his eyes, her own wide with fear. He pulled her up, turned her around, and pushed her against the wall, hard. Hermione screamed as the rough sandstone dug into her back and Malfoy stuck his tongue down her throat once more, his hands roaming around her body. Hermione couldn't stop him and he pulled his wand from his blood red robes. Hermione stared at him in horror. He grinned his malicious grin and pointed his wand at the side of her dress. He muttered a spell and to Hermione's distress, she felt the stitching on the left side of her dress come undone. She hastily grabbed it, all she was wearing underneath was a bra and panties. Malfoy seemed to know this. He stepped towards her again and ripped away her dress, throwing it to the side. Hermione screamed even louder then before, desperately trying to cover herself up as Malfoy took in what was in front of him.

He laughed.

"Stop it!" Hermione yelled. "Please, leave me alone!" Tears poured down her cheeks.

Malfoy ignored her again. He grabbed onto her waist with both hands, and ignoring her twisting and shouting, started to move his hands up her body. He reached her bra and moved his hands behind her back towards the clasp.

Hermione screamed the loudest she had yet, flailing about with her arms, hitting him, just trying to stop him. But it seemed there was nothing she could do. It was hopeless. She hit him, she kneed him, he didn't care. He was still trying to get her clasp undone, but she kept fighting.

"Damn it!" Malfoy cursed, annoyed of her actions. He raised one of his hands and slapped her across the face so hard that she felt she could taste blood. She stopped fighting. Just cried and gave small yells as she half heartedly tried to stop him.  
...

Ron walked up the corridor to Hermione's common room. It had taken him ages to find it, as he had actually never been there. He walked up to a large portrait of a large woman with blonde pigtails and rosy cheeks.

"Hello sonny!" She said cheerfully.

"Um, hi," Ron said apprehensively. "Is this the Head Dorms?" It had only just occurred to him that he didn't know the password.

"That it is, but do you have the password?" She asked in a patronising voice.

"Uh, no," Ron admitted. "But it's sort of important. Do you think you could just let me in?" He asked hopefully.

"Sorry boy, no can do," the woman sighed.

Ron groaned, kneading his head with his knuckles.

"Please," he begged, "It's really important."

"No password, no entry." She said firmly.

"Oh come on!" Ron said loudly.

"No!"

"Let me in!"

Suddenly there was a loud scream from inside the room.

"HERMIONE!" Ron shouted. "Please let me in!" He yelled to the woman.

The woman looked a little worried now. "But… The password…"

"She's in trouble!" Ron bellowed at her. "She needs help!" He looked desperate now. Another scream came from the room, followed by small cries.

"Open the door!" Ron roared, and started smashing the portrait with his fists. The portly woman gave a cry of alarm.

"Okay, okay, hold your horses! I'll let you in… Just because you look like a nice little boy! But don't tell anyone!" she warned. She started to slowly swing open. Ron couldn't wait, and pushed it open with all his might, running into the room.

The sight that met his eyes was such a site that he gave a large yell.

Hermione was being pushed against the wall by Draco Malfoy. She was wearing nothing but her underclothes, and struggling with Malfoy as he tried to unclasp her bra. Tears were running down her face, her makeup was terribly smudged and she was crying and screaming.

Ron felt fury like he had never felt before in his life.

"GET OFF HER!" He bellowed and ran at Malfoy, grabbing him by the neck of his robes and throwing him across the room. He ran over to him and leant over him. He punched him and punched him and punched him. His face was red, and filled with anger. He just kept beating Malfoy up, not caring how badly. Blood was seeping out of Malfoy's mouth and nose, and he already had a black eye. Malfoy tried to punch him back, but Ron didn't even notice, to intent he was on making Malfoy feel pain. After several minutes of this he stopped and leant into Malfoy so that their faces were only a foot or so apart.

"If you ever," Ron hissed at him, his hand holding onto Malfoy's throat. "Go near Hermione again, I will kill you. I swear it."

Malfoy seemed to be in shock, and just nodded dumbly. He struggled out of Ron's grip and ran out of the common room, towards the Slytherin common room.

Ron turned towards Hermione, his face full of guilt.

"Ron?" Hermione sobbed in disbelief. She had sunk to the floor and was holding the remains of her dress over her body.

"Hermione, I am so sorry," Ron said in disbelief, running over to her and picking her up in his arms. "I'm the world's biggest idiot."

"Ron," Hermione cried, lifting her hands to his face and caressing it. "You saved me."

Ron carried her over to the sofa and laid her gently down on it, sitting down next to her, and putting her head on his lap. He pulled her hair off her tear stained face and wiped the tears away. He softly helped her up and hugged her. Her dress had fallen away by now but neither of them cared.

He kissed her softly on her lips, holding her tight. He didn't do anything more, thinking that she might be feeling delicate. But to his great surprise she deepened the kiss, slipping her hands through his robes and resting them on his back. Ron slowly moved his hands up her side, slipping his fingers under her bra. Hermione shivered a little, and Ron quickly redrew.

"No, don't stop," she said in a soft voice. She lay back on the couch, pulling Ron with her, so that he was on top of her. He kissed her passionately, his tongue in her mouth, hers in his. Ron felt tingly all over, as did Hermione. She pulled his robes off over his head, so that he was only in his boxers.

"Hello? Hermione? Ron? Are you guys there?" A voice called from behind the entrance to the common room.

Ron and Hermione jumped up quickly. "Damn Harry," Hermione muttered to herself. "Yes, yes, we're here!" She called, annoyed.

"Uh, do you think you could tell me the password?" Harry asked.

Ron groaned. Hermione sighed. "Wait a second," she called drearily. She quickly walked to her room and grabbed a pair of robes which she quickly pulled on. When she came back into the common room Ron had his clothes back on.

"It's 'Daisies and butterflies."

A couple of seconds later Harry walked into the room. He beamed at them.

"Will it's good to see that you guys have made up-"

He stopped talking. He stared at them. Hermione just realised what must look so weird. She was wearing a pair of robes messily, while her ripped dress lay discarded on the floor. Her hair seemed almost back to its previously bushy self, and her makeup was most likely more then a bit messy. She also noticed, looking at Ron, that he was hardly any better. For a starters, his robes were on backwards. His hair was sticking up worse than her own.

"Okay," Harry said slowly. He looked a little shocked, and quite uncomfortable. "I'll be going now. Uh, sorry for disturbing you…" He quickly walked out of the common room.

"Oh great," Hermione joked. "Now Harry's going to think that… well you know."

Ron grinned, walking over to her. "Don't worry, we'll tell him how nothing happened tomorrow," He said, pulling her into a hug. "I think you should get some sleep Hermione." Ron muttered, before kissing her softly on the lips once more. "You've had enough for one night I think."

Hermione nodded, and kissed Ron back. Ron magically cleaned Malfoy's blood off the floor, and proceeded to the door. "Lock your door." He said seriously. "And tell me if he comes anywhere near you. Tomorrow we'll tell a teacher about what he did."

"No!" said Hermione suddenly. "No. I don't want people to know, I don't want to cause a fuss…"

"But Hermione!" Ron exclaimed. "Look what he nearly did to you, he deserves to die, deserves to…" Ron was getting carried away again. Hermione put a hand to her head.

"I don't want people to know." She murmured. "Everyone will talk, if they find out." She looked up at Ron. "Please Ron; swear to me that you won't tell anyone."

Ron looked torn. He bit his lip. "Okay," he said finally. I won't without your permission, unless he does it again, then he dies AND I'll tell someone."

Hermione rolled her eyes as Ron began pushing the door open.

"Bye, Hermione. I can't live without you, you know."

He left, leaving Hermione with a great goofy grin plastered over her face, the thing with Malfoy pushed to the back of her mind.

"Ron and Hermione sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G." she sang to herself.

So, did you like it? Please review, we cant get too many of them. Thanks, mkanda


	8. Mucking Around

Sorrysorrysorrysorry! We're so sorry! I know it took so long, I don't even want to think about how long, I don't know what got into us, but uni's been really busy and blghh. You know, so sorry! So here's the next chapter.

Disclaimer: All characters belong to J.K Rowling.

* * *

As Hermione woke, sunshine poured through her window, causing her to smile in contentment. The memories of the night before flooded into her mind. Pictures of her romantic moment with Ron replayed themselves over and over again, and she lay in bed for what seemed an eternity just staring at the ceiling, thinking about Ron. Then she remembered Malfoy. She shivered in her bed, though it was warm. Malfoy had tried to… No. She wasn't going to think about it. Ron had taken care of him. She smiled as she remembered Ron running through the door and saving her. She forgot all about Malfoy. 

It was so annoying; every time Ron and her tried to have some time to themselves, it was ruined. The staircase, the room under the staircase… She grimaced at the thought of Harry thinking about what she and Ron had been up to on the sofa.

She got dressed and made her way down the stairs to the Great Hall. Harry and Ron were sitting opposite each other at the Gryffindor table, not really talking. Hermione sat down next to Ron.

"Good morning," she said awkwardly.

"Hi."

"Hello."

Harry finished eating his breakfast rather quickly. "Uh, I have homework to do," he said lamely and walked off.

Ron groaned.

"We've got to go talk to him," Hermione said at once. "Tell him that nothing happened. Come on." She grabbed Ron's arm and attempted to pull him up.

"Aw Hermione!" Ron choked on a mouthful of food. "Breakfast!"

"Breakfast can wait," Hermione said sternly. "We've got to talk to Harry."

"Okay, okay," Ron said reluctantly.

They walked up the stairs to the Gryffindor common room.

"Hey, I just realized I haven't been here all year!" Hermione exclaimed as they reached the Fat Lady.

"Um, yes, come on." They entered the common room and Parvati and Lavender walked up to them.

"Hermione, what are you doing here?" Parvati asked in surprise.

Hermione laughed. "I'm still allowed here you know! And it is a Saturday."

"You looking for Harry?" Lavender asked.

"Yes, have you seen him?"

"He just went up to his dormitory."

"Ah, thanks."

Ron and Hermione started towards the steps of the Boys dormitories, but were saved the trouble of walking up as Harry met them at the entrance. He stopped, looking surprised.

"Hi."

"Harry, listen," Hermione said, trying not to grin as Ron looked at his shoes in an embarrassed sort of way. "Last night when you walked in, we weren't doing anything or anything… you know… we were just…." Hermione trailed off.

"Having fun?" Harry questioned, his eyes twinkling.

"Look, we didn't have sex." Said Ron bluntly.

Harry raised his eyebrows. "Okay then."

Hermione felt her face go red, but knew it would be nothing compared to Ron's ears.

"We were just mucking around," she said quietly. "We didn't do anything. We just kissed a bit."

"It's okay, you don't have to say," Harry said knowingly. "I mean, I won't bother pretending that I haven't been 'mucking around,' as you put it, with Ginny."

"WHAT!" Ron roared and punched Harry in the face.

"Ron," Hermione squealed, rushing to Harry's side as he held his nose.

"I'm okay," he said meekly.

"Ron, apologise!" Hermione said loudly, as a parent would speak to a child that had misbehaved.

But Ron was already at the base of the girl's staircase.

"Ginny!" he shouted up the staircase. "This is your brother speaking, and I'm ordering you to get down here! Now!"

"Ron calm down," Hermione said soothingly, rubbing his back… "She's sixteen after all."

But Ron was still fuming.

"What do you want Ron?" Ginny snapped as she came into view, wearing a dressing gown. "It's only nine thirty!"

Ron seemed to have trouble breathing.

"What. Have. You. Been. Doing. With. Harry?" He said, taking a deep breath between each word.

"Huh? What do you mean? Nothing!" Ginny said very quickly.

Ron narrowed his eyes suspiciously at her.

Ginny exchanged looks with Harry, who was still holding his nose in an irritated way. He shrugged.

"What have you guys been up to?" Ron asked furiously.

"Ron, give it a break, it is none of your business what I do!" Ginny said irritantly. "You're only a year older than me!"

"That doesn't make any difference." Ron said stubbornly. "I'm still your brother. It's my responsibility-"

"Aw shut up Ron! You're beginning to sound like Percy! Since when have you been the most responsible brother?" Ginny shouted.

Hermione suppressed a snort at the look of indignation on Ron's face.

"I'm writing to mum right now!" Ron said in a bossy voice.

Ginny's face went red with anger and Harry's mouth fell open with shock.

"You wouldn't dare," Ginny said in a hushed voice.

"Ron don't be stupid," Hermione snapped at him.

Suddenly a smug look came over Harry's face. "Yes Ron, you wouldn't." He said in a threatening voice. "Or I might have to tell something to Mrs. Weasley as well." He smirked.

Hermione's face went bright red, and Ron's mouth opened in shock.

"What?" asked Ginny, confused.

"Mate, come on," Ron said in a low voice. "You wouldn't."

"Harry…" Hermione trailed off.

"Of course I won't." Harry rolled his eyes. "But come on Ron, don't."

"He won't," Hermione said firmly and grabbing Ron's arm, pulled him out of the common room.

Ron gaped soundlessly at her, making her laugh.

"Leave them alone Ron," she said calmly. "They deserve privacy."

Ron slowly calmed down. "Okay, okay. But it's not like he had to tell us that! And as for him threatening to tell my mum…"

"He was just joking," Hermione said soothingly. "Hey have you done that potions essay?"

So they spent the rest of the day in the library working on their extremely difficult potions essay. Well, in actual fact Hermione did, while Ron occasionally wrote a sentence while grumbling about Snape and what he'd like to do with him.

"Hey, Ron?" Hermione interrupted finally, as Ron started going into a long description of boiling Snape in a cauldron of his own potion.

"Yes?"

"Do you think you should do your essay?"

Ron groaned. "But Hermione…"

"Oh don't whine," she giggled. "Oh, and by the way I was thinking…"

Ron waited a few seconds. "Do you want to tell me?"

"Right, I was thinking," she lowered her voice slightly. "We need to find somewhere where we can get a bit of privacy."

Ron's ears went pink. "Right," he muttered.

"Because I really don't think the last two spots have been that great," she went on briskly. "We always get, well, interrupted."

"Uhuh," Ron mumbled, suddenly becoming very interested in his potions essay.

"And I've been thinking, we can't use a dormitory, because we'll just get walked in on, under the staircase is to loud so what do you think?"

"I dunno, how about the Room of Requirement?" Ron suggested.

"Oh yes! Great idea!" said Hermione brightly. "I hadn't thought of that." Then she bit her lip. "Except, it's not exactly like no one knows about it anymore."

"Yeah, you're right," Ron said. "Oh well. We'll just have to continue this conversation-"

He stopped at the look on her face. "Well come on Hermione, this isn't the best place in the world to talk about this," he said, glancing around the silent library.

"Fine," Hermione huffed. "We'll talk about it later."

"Okay great," Ron breathed. "I just don't want anyone to hear, and look Parvati and Lavender are just over at that table, if they heard us the whole school would know in a matter of days."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Okay."

However they didn't talk about it later, and weeks past, and the months rolled into November and December.

The castle was getting colder now, and the common room was cramped full of studying fifth and seventh years, plus other students.

Hermione woke early on Christmas day. She got out of bed and looked through all the presents at the base of her bed. There was a card and a scarf from her parents, some homemade toffee from Mrs. Weasley, a book on advanced transfiguration from Harry (she'd told him what she wanted) and there were some chocolates from Ginny. But nothing from Ron.

Hermione raised an eyebrow at this. That was odd. She'd gotten him chocolates and a chudley cannons guide book.

She made her way down to the Great Hall where she met Ron, Harry and Ginny who were sitting at the Gryffindor table.

"Hi!" She greeted them, taking a seat. "Merry Christmas!"

"You too," Harry said, nodding at her. "Thanks for the present! And Ron, thanks for the hat. I liked yours as well, Ginny," he added, seeing the annoyed look on her face.

Hermione frowned at this. Ron had given Harry a present but not her?

"Merry Christmas!" Ginny said cheerfully, leaning across the table to give Hermione a hug.

"Hey, Hermione, can I talk to you for a minute?" Ron asked quietly.

"Yes, sure," replied Hermione, and she got up and followed him out of the hall. She felt a little nervous. Why did Ron want to talk to her privately?

Ron stopped at the stairs and turned to face her. His grin settled her worries immediately.

"Merry Christmas Hermione!" he said, wrapping his arms around her.

Hermione smiled up at him. "You scared me!" She said grinning back at him. "You seemed so serious and everything."

"Oh sorry, I've got something for you though." He said brightly, reaching into the pocket of his robes. He pulled a small box out of his pocket, and handed it to her.

Hermione took it in her hands. It was quite small and square, covered with deep purple velvet. She undid the clasp and flicked the box open. Inside, sitting on a tiny pillow was a silver necklace. Hermione gasped.

"Ron! This must have been really expensive!"

"It doesn't matter how much it was. Do you like it?" He said smiling at her.

Hermione took it out of the box and held it up to her face. It was beautiful. Quite simple, just silver chains entwined with each other. At the end there was a tear shaped pink tinged pearl.

"It's amazing," Hermione breathed. "Ron, thank you so much!" she flung her arms around him again, kissing him.

The end of the Christmas holidays came quicker than any of them could have expected, what with all the homework and studying that the seventh years were doing. Malfoy barely communicated with them anymore, Hermione had a strong feeling that he was petrified that she might tell a teacher of what he had attempted to do to her. She had no intentions of telling, as long as he didn't try anything else.

* * *

Oh I know I know. It took so long, and it's not even that interesting a chapter. But please review anyway! Reviews make us write faster! (Next chapter shouldn't take as long.)

Mkanda


	9. Arrival Of The Pixies

Hello Everybody!

Thankyou to our few reviewers, sniff sniff.Lol, and to all our reviewers who are asking us to hurry update, can we just remind you that we do have a life off fanfiction, so we can't always update once a week or whatever. We're really busy at the moment. So yes, telling us to hurry up is just going to get you shorter chapters, which is why this chapter's so short. But enjoy anyway, and please REVIEW! Otherwise we'll hunt you down. Haha. Muohoho.

Disclaimer: All characters belong to J.K Rowling.

* * *

"Hey, Valentine's Day is in month," Hermione commented casually over breakfast one January morning. 

"Oh yeah," Ron replied, pouring coffee into her mug. "So?"

Hermione stared at him. "I was just saying," she said, but looked a little annoyed. "I've got to go to Arithmancy, see you later." She got up and walked out of the hall. Her seat was immediately taken by Parvati. Lavender slid onto the seat next to Ron.

"So," she smirked. "Trouble with the love life Ron?"

Ron groaned. "What do you two want?" He asked, with a mock look of disgust on his face.

"Nothing," Parvati laughed. "Nothing, we just thought you might need a little, you know, help."

"Well thanks for the offer, but I'm fine," Ron said grinning, standing up from the table. But Lavender and Parvati jumped in front of him to stop him going any further.

"Now now Ron." Lavender pushed him down back onto his chair. "It may not seem too important to you, but we know that Hermione finds Valentine's Day very special."

"No she doesn't!" Ron said rolling his eyes. "Hermione hates Valentine's Day! She thinks it's a stupid commercial holiday."

"No way!" Lavender shook her head.

"That's just what she tells you," Parvati added. "But inside, she's yearning for your attention!"

"You've been reading too many romance novels!" Ron sighed, pushing through them.

"Nope, you just haven't been reading enough!" Parvati piped up from his side. Ron lengthened his strides.

"Fine it's your funeral!" Lavender mock sighed from behind him, as they both stopped walking. "Don't come weeping to us when Hermione cries how you've broken her heart!"

Ron stopped. "Oh come on!" He called back to them. "How much is it going to matter to her! It's only some stupid day!"

"You'd be surprised!" Lavender said warningly.

Ron was thoroughly annoyed by now. "Why would you want to help me anyway?" he grumbled to them, walking back to them.

Parvati shrugged.. "Got nothing better to do," she said with a mischievous glimmer in her eye.

"So what do you think?" Lavender asked.

Ron let out a small groan. "Fine," he said, as though it was a huge deal. "I suppose so."

They both beamed up at him, reminding Ron of a pair of pixies who were up to something.

"So what now?" He asked, not knowing what was meant to happen.

"We have it all under control." Parvati assured him. "Just meet us in the library at lunchtime to discuss. And remember, not a word about this to Hermione. You don't want to ruin the surprise!" And they trotted off out of the hall leaving Ron with a bemused look on his face.

* * *

"Hey Ron, you coming to lunch?" Harry called out to him as Ron veered away from him and Hermione at the end of their morning lessons. 

"Uh, yeah, well I dunno, I've got heaps of work to do, I'm going to the library, I'll see you in transfiguration," Ron yelled back quickly as he hurried up the stairs.

"That's weird," Hermione muttered, looking after him.

"Yeah, since when did Ron miss out on lunch to do work?" Harry chortled.

Ron walked into the library and found Parvati and Lavender sitting at a table. As soon as they saw him they began to giggle and beckoned him towards them. Ron reluctantly joined them.

"Okay. So what's the plan?" He asked them, slightly reluctantly.

"You need to do something really special" Parvati said matter of factly.

"Yes, and the 'Witch Weekly' has fifty great tips for Valentine's treats!" Lavender squealed excitedly.

For the next ten minutes Lavender read from the magazine, suggesting things like 'covering the bed in petals,' and 'buying rather 'special' clothes for the occasion.' By the end of it Ron was feeling quite nauseous.

"Look," he said loudly, as Parvati gasped at the simply wonderful idea that Lavender was dictating. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. I mean, no offence or anything girls, but all those ideas are pretty, um, what's the word?"

"Romantic?" Lavender suggested, beaming at him.

"Inspiring?" Parvati sighed happily.

"No," said Ron flatly. "I just don't think they're right, okay?"

"Fine," Lavender snapped, chucking the magazine behind her. "Then it's time." She looked at Parvati with a sincere look on her face, as if it was something huge, and very secret.

"What?" Ron asked, confused.

Parvati stared at her for a second, looking a little quizzical, but then her face broke into a knowing smile. "Oh." She said quietly. "It's time."

"What?" Ron questioned, annoyed.

"It is the right time." Lavender said solemnly, nodding at Parvati.

"What!" Ron yelled, almost pulling his hair out with frustration.

"The time," Parvati breathed, turning to Ron, "For Plan B."

* * *

Hehe, it's so fun writing about Parvati and Lavender, they're the best characters. Please review! 

Love Mkanda.


	10. Plan B

Hello! Thank you to all our reviewers! Sorry for taking so long. Okay, since the sixth book just came out (!) some little things have sort of ruined our storyline. Spoiler alert! (Not that you should be reading this if you haven't already read it yet) Some annoying things include the fact that Harry's present at Hogwarts in our version…

So why don't we all imagine that the sixth book never came out? Sounds good? Excellent! Then please enjoy the story!

Oh, and Rachel? I did some research, and the majority of the time that the characters in Harry Potter are wishing others a nice Christmas, they say Merry. (Don't mean that to sound rude, I just like gloating! Haha! Sorry.)

And we don't know who keeps sending these reviews asking if we're called Mia and Leila, but our names are Jay and Tam. We do however know some people called the names mentioned above.

Sorry, you can go read now!

"Oh." Said Ron, looking unenthusiastic. "Great. And what would plan B be?"

"Well," beamed Parvati, looking the complete opposite of Ron. "It's this great plan we've had, involving you, Hermione, Valentine's Day and…'

"What?" Ron grumbled.

"Uh, well we haven't quite decided on that yet," Lavender admitted. "But you wait, it'll be great!"

Just then the bell rang signalling the end of lunch.

"We'll have to have another meeting!" Lavender said importantly as Ron picked up his bag. "Same time tomorrow, is that okay with you?"

"Do you girls ever eat?" Ron asked, annoyed.

"Of course!" Parvati said, looking at him with a scandalised look on her face. "Why are you asking us rude questions anyway, you should be thanking us on bent knees for helping you!"

"Hmm, yeah maybe I should," Ron said sarcastically. "It's just there's one tiny problem."

"What?"

"You haven't done anything yet!" said Ron, grinding his teeth together.

"We told you, we've got it all worked out!" Lavender said, exasperated. "So we'll meet you tomorrow! See you!"

They trotted off, talking quickly to each other. Ron was starting to feel that this Valentine's Day thing was a lot more trouble then it was worth. He didn't know what was happening! He supposed he'd just have to wait til lunchtime tomorrow to find out.

However it didn't seem that he didn't have to wait quite that long.

It was double potions, and Ron was attempting to make a Felix Felicis potion. He was also trying to remember how had he gotten into this class. His potion was supposed to be a vibrant orange colour by now. Instead it seemed to be turning transparent. Before Ron could point this out to Harry, he heard a hissing noise coming from along the table. He looked down the long table and to his great annoyance saw Lavender and Parvati sitting several empty seats down from him. They were both positively beaming and motioning excitedly for him to move along next to them, evidently so they could talk.

Were they insane? Snape was pacing around the table in front of them at that very moment! They'd be docked fifty points from Gryffindor each! And even if Snape didn't see them, wouldn't it be a bit suspicious for him to just leave Harry's side to go and join them?

He jerked his head to the side. No! Later! But they took no notice of his desperate signals but started waving even more obviously.

"What do they want?" Hermione snapped quietly from beside Harry. "Ron, what are they doing?"

"Uh, well…" Ron trailed off. "I dunno. Harry, I think they're talking to you!" He added desperately.

"What, you think so?" Harry said quickly, his head snapping up and turning in the girls' direction with a kind of goofy smile on his face.

"Harry, Ginny!" Hermione hissed at him, tugging his sleeves.

"What? Oh yeah…"

"Ron, I'm quite sure they're signalling at you!" Hermione said sharply to him. "You wouldn't happen to know why, would you?"

"Um, have I got something in my teeth?" Ron suggested furtively.

Harry gave a little laugh that he tried to disguise as a cough. But it was too late.

"Potter!" Snape snapped from the front of the room.

"Yes, sir."

"Did you just make an unnecessary noise?"

"Yes, sir." Harry replied in a bored voice. There was no point denying it, Snape wouldn't care whether he had or hadn't.

"Ten points from Gryffindor! And I want silence!"

Parvati and Lavender had stopped being so obvious at Snape's first word. But they were once again shooting him looks. Hermione had turned back to her potion, as had Harry. Ron glanced down at his potion. It now seemed to be turning into globs of green goo. Well, since there was no point continuing on it…

He reached down into his bag and quickly pulled out a spare piece of parchment, ink and a quill.

_What!_ He scrawled on it, then quickly slid it down the table towards Parvati and Lavender. They seized it and Parvati pulled a quill from her bag in turn, bent over the paper and scribbled something then pushed it back towards Ron. He grabbed it and read off it in very curly writing…

_We've had an idea about what you and Hermione should do for Valentine's Day! _

_Well why can't you tell me at lunch, like we planned?_ Ron wrote furiously, shoving the paper back at them. It took a while for the girls to reply. There was much silenced chatting and mischievous grins going on before he got the reply.

_Fine_, _we'll save it til then_.

_Good_. Ron scribbled angrily.

_Excellent_, they replied.

_Great._

_Beautiful._

_Wonderful._

_Perfect._

_Fantastic._

_Smashing._

Ron glared at the last message for a while, and then looked up at Parvati and Lavender, who were both smiling sweetly at him.

_Okay, fine. You win. What the hell is it?_

The girls read this message and elapsed into silent giggles, which were amazingly not noticed by the potions master.

_I thought you didn't want to know? _Read the returning message.

Ron felt like he could've roared with fury as he grabbed his quill again.

_Well now I obviously wanna know, don't I? So are you gonna freaking tell me or am I going to have to start doing my bloody potion again?_

The girls giggled and quickly replied.

_Fine fine, we'll tell you. _

Do you girls have a life, or does it just consist of you doing everything you possibly can to infuriate me? Ron etched into the table through the paper.

No, no, no. We're telling you now. Seriously, we are! Okay, so the idea is you want a romantic time with Hermione don't you? You want a nice… night maybe? For some fun? Or as I hear you call it from Harry, some 'mucking around.' Hahahahahahaha…

That was all it said. Ron's hands shook.

_So what is your bloody great plan then? Mind you I'm starting to have second thoughts on all of this. I mean, what have you been talking to Harry about?_

The parchment was starting to get damaged as the reply came. _Oh nothing, nothing! You know he just let something slip about walking into you and Hermione on a couch without clothes on… Woops! _

_He's lying! _Ron scribbled madly. _We had clothes on! So what's your stupid idea then, hurry up and tell me! Otherwise the greasy git at the front of the class is gonna confiscate this and read it and I really don't want him to read about me and Hermione making out on top of a sofa with barely any clothes on and my hand up her bra! Yeah there you go, you know now, so will you please tell me-_

"Weasley! What is that you are writing! Pass it here at once!"

Snape was standing at the end of the table near Parvati and Lavender with his hand outstretched. The girls both had look of absolute horror plastered onto their faces.

Ron stared up at Snape, terrified.

"This?" he asked numbly, holding up the paper, his hand shaking slightly. "You want this?"

Snape's lip curled. "Yes Weasley, and you knew it. Ten points for writing notes to others during class," He glanced down at Parvati and Lavender. "And another ten points for deliberately holding up the class right now! Now- hand- over- the- parchment!"

His voice bounced off the stone walls of the silent class room. Every single face was staring at Ron. Malfoy was sneering. Ron made a mental note to see him later.

Ron wondered for a second if it would be better to just stuff the parchment in his mouth and chew it up, rather then let Snape read it. _Me and Hermione making out on top of a sofa with barely any clothes on and my hand up her bra._ But the look on Snape's face told him that this was not an option. He slowly stretched out his hand, holding the parchment face down. Snape took it, staring at Ron with a look of anger mingled with triumph on his face. But then, to Ron's disbelief Snape simply put the paper face down at the end of the desk.

"I'll read it later." He strode off to the Slytherin end of the class.

Ron stared at the parchment. He had to get rid of it!But how, without Snape knowing? Then an idea sprang to his mind, and idea so brilliant that he thought for a moment that it must've been transferred from Hermione's mind to his, in some strange way.

He reached into his bag and grabbed another sheet of parchment. Then he grabbed his quill and wrote, in curly writing:

_Hey Ron, what do you think of potions? _Then underneath that in a different handwriting he wrote:

_I love potions! It's my favourite subject! Professor Snape is the best teacher in this place!_

Okay, so maybe that was a bit too suspicious. He screwed up the parchment and took out a fresh sheet.

_Have you girls done that charms essay yet? I cant find any info in any of my books, even the ones from the library._

_Ron, how the hell would we know? We never do homework anyway, we just waste our time annoying people like you!_

Might as well kill to birds with one stone.

"Lavender!" Ron hissed out of the side of his mouth.

She looked up, looking thoroughly miserable. "What?"

"Take this," he murmured, thrusting the paper at her.

She took it, looking confused.

"Swap- with- other- note!"

A look of comprehension dawned on Lavender's face, Parvati's mouth went into a silent _Oh!_

While Snape's back was turned, Lavender quickly reached forward, seized the criminal sheet of paper and replaced it with the innocent sheet. Ron breathed again while Lavender and Parvati read the note and covered their mouths to suppress a fit of giggles.

Hermione scowled quietly over at Lavender and Parvati. What on earth were they laughing at? And why was Ron writing to them?

After class Hermione grabbed her bag and jogged up to Ron.

"Ron! Hey, Ron!"

He looked around and saw her. "Oh, hi Hermione!" He said a little to brightly.

"So, what was happening in potions?" Hermione asked, trying not to narrow her eyes accusingly.

"Um, what do you mean?" Ron said in a feeble attempt at a throw away question.

"I mean, you writing notes all through potions to Parvati and Lavender!" Hermione glowered.

"Oh. Well, uh…"

But before he could answer, two manically giggling girls glided past, eyeing Harry and Hermione with glee.

"Oh hi!" Parvati said, grinning. "Whatcha doing? Just… mucking around?" Both girls burst into hysterical laughter. Ron shot Harry a seething look.

"What are they talking about?" Asked Hermione in a mock innocent tone.

"I don't know, but maybe HARRY, would have an inkling?" Ron said angrily, rounding on Harry, who seemed to be trying to shrink behind his school bag.

"Nope, no idea," Harry said instantly. "Well, it's off to quidditch practice for me!"

"What are you talking about?" Ron asked annoyed. "It's not for another," He glanced at his watch. "Six hours, thirty two minutes and thirty five seconds!"

"Yes,- well, er…" Harry spluttered. "They're private lessons, yeah!"

"What? With whom?"

"Um, well… Lockhart! Yes that's right Gilderoy Lockhart! You know how he offered me some lessons, and I, er, decided to take him up on them. And, wow will you look at the time, I'd better be off!"

"Harry," Ron said in a more calm and understanding voice as Hermione laughed into her hand. "Gilderoy Lockhart is in a mental ward at Saint Mungo's. Remember, we put a pretty memory charm on him five years ago! But you can join him at the hospital if that's what you want. That's if you survive the beating I'm going to give you for uh, 'leaking out' personal information about Hermione and me!" He added in an undertone.

"Um, yes I think I will!" Harry muttered feverishly. "Join him, I mean! Got to go! Bye, bye now! Toodles!" And he sprinted off in the opposite direction, knocking through a group of lagging Slytherins as he did.

Hermione laughed loudly. Ron gave a nervous sort of titter and Hermione's attention turned back to him.

"So," she snapped, now back to reality. "What were you talking to them about?"

But Ron seemed to be prepared. "They were asking me about whether all the stuff Harry told them about us was real!"

"Oh," said Hermione, calming down. "I see. And what did you tell them?"

"That it wasn't true!" Ron exclaimed innocently! "What did you think I'd tell them?"

"Okay, okay," Hermione smiled. The corridor was deserted by now. Hermione grinned at Ron shyly. She moved closer and slid her arms around his waist as he did the same to her. He kissed her softly and moved his mouth down her cheekbone, then down to her neck. Hermione gave a small sigh as he bit her softly on her neck. But then-

"Not here," he whispered softly before letting her go. "I have to go to the library again to finish that damn essay for Flitwick."

"Oh okay," Hermione said briskly, obviously a little annoyed as she tucked back her hair. "But, you know, you should've done it yesterday. Why don't you use the homework planner I gave you?"

Ron mumbled something that sounded indistinctly like 'burned it.'

"Hmm, well okay, Then I'll see you in Charms." She walked out of the classroom.

A few minutes later Ron arrived in the Library. He spotted the two nightmares sitting over at a table near the back bookshelves, examining an old piece of parchment. As Ron approached them he noticed with a start that the parchment was none other then the Marauders map.

"Where the HELL did you get that?" He hissed loudly at them as he sat down.

"Harry," Lavender said absent-mindedly, not looking up.

"And does Harry _know_ you've got it?"

"Now," said Parvati quickly. "As we said before, we've figured out a Plan B!"

"What is it?" Ron mumbled without enthusiasm.

"Well," Parvati beamed, "You, are going to give Hermione the night of her life!"

"Ye-huh," Ron grunted. "Keep your voice down! And anyway, it's not like we haven't tried that… What are you laughing at?"

"Nothing!" squeaked Lavender. "Well, we know you've been trying, so we decided that what you really need, is a place of your own! And we think we know where you can uh, do this!" She motioned at the map.

"Fab," Ron drawled, rolling his eyes. "By the way, how did you get the map?"

"Parvati pashed Harry," Lavender said casually.

"What?" Ron half yelled, so that Madam Pince gave him a piercing glare.

"No I didn't!" Parvati frowned, elbowing Lavender.

"Yeah, but it's not like you don't want to!"

They both broke into loud giggles. Ron put his head in his hands. "Merlin help me…"

"So, we've decided on the perfect place where you can give Hermione the best love of her life!" Parvati said matter of factly, the pinkness fading from her cheeks. "And it is, drum roll please, Lavender."

Lavender patted her hands on the table excitedly with a look of pure glee on her face.

Ron glanced over at Madam Pince, but she was busy ushering some third years away from the Restricted Section. He turned his face back to Parvati.

"The Shrieking Shack!" She cried, throwing her arms into the air with glory. Everybody in the vicinity stared at them.

"Um… Is of course, said to be the most severely haunted building in Britain…" She finished feebly to all the listening ears.

"That's enough you three, OUT!" Madam Pince shrieked, swooping down on them. "It's to much, to loud, now out of my library!"

"The Shrieking Shack?" Ron hissed as they walked down the corridor. "Are you two out of your minds!"

"Why, what's the problem?"

"What do, what- what do you think the freaking problem is? Well nothing girls, apart from the fact that it's disgusting and- and destroyed- and have you even been in there?"

"Well, no," Parvati admitted. "But come on, how bad can it be? And Harry said it's fine!"

"What the hell have you been talking about to Harry!" Ron cried in a high pitched voice. "Or, more appropriately, what _haven't _you been talking about? How did you get all this information?"

"We slipped him a love potion," Parvati said simply, as they walked out of the entrance hall and into the chilly grounds.

"WHAT!" Ron yelled. "Are you insane?"

"Calm down!" came a shocked Lavender. "We only gave him a teeny bit! We just needed to weed a little information out of him! It only lasted ten minutes!"

"Okay, okay… But still- the Shrieking Shack!"

"It'll be fine once we've glammed it up a bit." Parvati said enthusiastically.

"Ooh, I just remembered, my mum sent me this really great witch's decorating magazine!"

They both squealed excitedly.

"Trust us Ron," Lavender cooed, "It'll be great. We have a plan! This Sunday, instead of going to Hogsmeade with Hermione, come with us and we'll start to 'get ready!'"

"Don't you think that'll be a bit suspicious?"

"It'll be fine Ron, don't worry! We'll meet you at outside the Entrance Hall on the steps at eleven on Sunday, okay?"

"Okay." He muttered grudgingly.

"Great! Okay, see you then!"

The two girls skipped back into the school, leaving Ron standing there.

_Now I'm done for. _He thought regretfully.


	11. Almost Perfect

Hey everyone! Thanks to our reviewers, now you must leave a review for this chapter, cause it is our second last for this story! Enjoy!

By the way, pashed means kissed (heavily), snogged etc, for anyone who doesn't know.

Disclaimer: All characters belong to J.K Rowling.

* * *

On the Friday evening of the twelfth of February, Ron, Hermione, Harry and Ginny were all found to be sitting in the Gryffindor common room attempting to get some homework done, and failing miserably due to the fact that Dean and Seamus were getting very loudly drunk off firewhisky. Eventually they gave up and sat around talking about what they were going to do at Hogsmeade the following day. 

"Ron, I'm afraid I can't go," Hermione said briskly, as Dean and Seamus waltzed past, singing the National Anthem. "I have so much work to do."

Ron silently cheered in his head. Yes! Now he wouldn't have to think up a reason for meeting Parvati and Lavender.

"Ron?"

Ron quickly came back to earth. "Yeah?"

"I asked if you were still going to go."

"Um," Ron said slowly, "Yeah, I'll probably go with Harry, you know."

"What?" Harry looked around. "No way, mate, Ginny and I are going together. _Alone_."

"Ah, well maybe I'll go with those two," Ron said motioning towards Dean and Seamus.

Hermione stared at Ron for a couple of seconds, and then turned slowly towards Dean and Seamus, who were at that moment trying to hoist each other up to touch the ceiling.

"I did it!" Shouted Seamus happily, balancing on Dean's shoulders, before falling heavily on two passing first years.

"Those two," Hermione said, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh, yeah," said Ron. He could hear Harry and Ginny stifling their laughter behind him.

"Okay," Hermione said, frowning slightly. "I'm going to go to bed, before Dean and Seamus start doing a lap-dance. Good night." She kissed Ron, waved goodbye to Harry and Ginny, and exited the portrait hole to go to her common room.

"So Ron," Ginny grinned, "What are you really doing tomorrow?"

"What? I was telling the truth!"

"Yeah. Right."

"Exactly. Goodnight," Ron said hastily and ran upstairs.

The next morning Ron ate breakfast quickly by himself and then went to the library to avoid Harry, Hermione or Ginny before he left.

At eleven o'clock, he went down to the entrance hall to meet the Parvati and Lavender. They were standing next to the door, wearing ridiculously small clothing for such cold weather.

"Okay, let's go," he said, glancing around nervously before ushering them out the door. Once they had past Filch, they headed towards the village.

"You girls are so lucky that Hermione is to busy to come today," Ron said, shivering in the cold wind. There weren't many people around the grounds at all, only a few others heading towards Hogsmeade.

"Aw, poor Ronnie, are you cold?" crooned Lavender.

"Don't you worry darwing, we'll keep you warm," Lavender said kindly, and the both wrapped their arms around him.

Ron groaned, annoyed. "Fine," he said, "let's go, before someone sees us."

"Oh, don't worry Ronnie," Parvati giggled, "No one can see us here."

Ron rolled his eyes, grinned slightly. "You girls crack me up," he said, putting his arms around them.

But someone did see them. Someone watching silently from the Head Common Room window. Her face tightened, her brown eyes watched. She pushed her brown hair from her face, and turned away. Who else could that red hair belong to? And who else but Parvati and Lavender would wear clothes like that? And what explanation could they have for this?

* * *

Three hours later Lavender, Parvati and a very tired looking Ron emerged from 'Damien's Décor,' Lavender and Parvati talking quickly and excitedly, Ron dragging about twenty large bags. 

"All right, Ron," Parvati said, turning to him. "You take all that stuff back to the shack, Lav and I still have a couple of things to do."

"Not more stuff for the shack, is it? Because I don't think we'll be able to fit anything else in it. I mean, we already have three shrunk couches in these bags! I still can't believe I'm doing this." He added as an afterthought. "This is really not me…"

"Oh stop grumbling," Lavender said brightly. "Now off you run." She gave him a small poke in the back and Ron staggered in the other direction. "Wait!" he called after them. "I can't go, I'll be seen!"

"Don't worry," Lavender said, and pulled an invisibility cloak from her bag. She threw it over to Ron, who managed to catch it. "Harry leant it to us."

"I don't want to know," said Ron through gritted teeth. He flung the cloak over himself, turned around and stomped through the snow and sleet. He made his way through the cold wind towards the shrieking shack, hoping that the cloak wouldn't be blown off. He arrived at the tree. Its branches whipped around, even more then usual thanks to the strong wind. Ron dropped all the bags with a sigh of relief, and started searching around for a long stick. He soon found one and after prodding the knot on the trunk, proceeded down the tunnel, dragging the bags with him. He exited the tunnel and stepped into the shrieking shack.

"Oh great," he groaned. It was even worse then he remembered. Everything in the room had gathered at least another inch of dust since he had last been here. Hundreds of spider webs spread across the ceiling wall, several of them inhabited. Ron shuddered in spite of himself. Furniture lay pell-mell across the floor, chairs had legs ripped off, and sofas were torn and had the stuffing spilling out of them. The old striped wallpaper on the walls was peeling off, and the windows and door were boarded off, thought the wood looked like it was rotting away. Indeed, the whole place had a faint smell of dirt and decay.

Ron sat down on an upside down sofa. How had he ever thought this was possible? Oh well, he'd got this far.

He rolled up his sleeves and began to work.

Half an hour later the room looked exactly the same, except that Ron had managed to vanish the mangy old couch he'd been sitting on. But, unless some miracle happened, he'd still be here at Christmas. Just then, two miracles by the names of Parvati and Lavender entered the room by the tunnel. They were both holding huge bundles of flowers in their arms, but promptly dropped them on the floor of the shack in surprise as they entered.

"Argh!" Lavender shrieked. Parvati seemed to be lost for words.

"I warned you," Ron said grimly. "Don't say I didn't warn you!"

"Well, this is alright," Parvati said in a voice quite a bit higher then her usual. "Don't you think, Lav?"

"Uh, yes! Of course!"

Ron shook his head bleakly. "So what are you two going to do first?"

"Well," said Parvati, her voice gradually returning to normal. "I think the first thing to do is get rid of these cobwebs and dust. Also, I reckon we ought to only use this room, because it's going to be too difficult to clean up the upstairs rooms as well. But first the dust and cobwebs…"

"Oh," said Ron quietly. "And how do you girls propose we do this?"

"Why, cleaning spells of course!" said Lavender happily. "Come on, Pav!"

"Pav and Lav," Ron muttered under his breath. "How sweet."

Parvati and Lavender didn't notice him. They were walking around the room, swishing their wands as they went. To Ron's amazement, and utter irritation, the dust and cobwebs started to siphon off. Within two minutes the entire room was almost dust free.

"There," beamed Lavender. "That's a bit better."

"What about all the furniture? It took my ages just to get rid of one couch, how are you guys going to get rid of all this other junk?"

"The only reason it took you thirty minutes to get rid of a couch is because you have no cleaning talents at all," Parvati snapped.

"Oh boo-hoo," Ron mumbled under his breath.

"Vanishing charms just aren't your strength."

"Okay, okay," Ron snapped. "I get it! Come on!"

"Say the magic word," taunted Lavender.

"Thankyou. Now please work your womanly magic."

"Are you saying that you expect women to do this type of domestic work? Because if you are, I will have you know that there are plenty of women in the workforce, and domestic men, for that matter, and just because we are feminine, does not mean we aren't feminists," Parvati lectured, scowling at Ron.

"Okay, Okay, I get it? Lay off. Actually don't. Can you please finish this, for the sake of Hermione?"

"Fine." said Lavender. "You just go sit in the corner and stay out of our way."

_This is going to be a long afternoon,_ thought Ron.

* * *

It was seven p.m. The crescent moon was hanging in the dark sky, surrounded by a twinkle of stars, and shining down upon the shrieking shack. 

Inside the shack, Ron was still sitting in the corner of the room, shivering, as it was quite chilly, and he hadn't moved in about three hours.

Parvati and Lavender walked up to him.

"Come on, get up!" Lavender said excitedly.

"What, have you finished?" Ron said hopefully, getting up and feeling his aching muscles.

"Yes," said Parvati.

"No, wait!" cried Lavender dramatically, and plucking a single red rose from a vase, placed it, with the air of someone dismantling a bomb, on a small round table.

"Perfect," Parvati breathed.

Ron rolled his eyes. "Anyway, you guys have done a really good job."

It was true. The room was unrecognisable from what it had been earlier that day.

The wooden floorboards were gleaming, the walls and wallpaper untarnished and whole, the windows and door, though still boarded up, looked presentable. A huge chandelier, which had previously lay amid the dust and debris on the floor, now hung from the ceiling. All the old furniture had been removed and the new purchased furniture had been set up around the room, all the small tables had huge vases of red roses set on them. The room smelt better as well, there was a fresh, flowery scent in the air. And then there was the bed. A huge king-sized four-poster was positioned in the middle of the room. It was a beautiful piece of furniture: Dark wood carved into a large four-poster, and the quilt was crimson trimmed with gold.

Ron turned to the girls. "I don't know how to thank you," he said.

"Well, you could start with changing your robes, they're covered with dust and are just completely ruining the beautiful, clean atmosphere," Lavender said critically.

"Yes," Parvati nodded, "I'm thinking, a deep royal… violet."

"I am not wearing purple," Ron said, looking at them in revolt.

They both stared at him, scandalised.

"Are you joking?" Parvati glared. "Purple and violet are two entirely different shades."

"After the few seconds it took Ron to catch up with the conversation, he shook his head and said, "Okay then, but I'm still not wearing… it. I'll just wear clean clothes tomorrow, when uh…" he trailed off and his ears burned red. "I still can't believe I'm doing this," he mumbled.

"Oh come on," Lavender said, slapping him lightly on the back. "You should express your individualities!"

"Um, yeah. Well, thanks for everything."

"It's fine, it was fun, and seriously even if you do become a multi-millionaire, you honestly don't have to pay me back for all the furniture, my parents won't even notice it's gone," Lavender said reassuringly.

"Anyway, do you want to go up to the castle?" Parvati said.

"Yeah, but you guys go up, I just want to make sure everything's perfect for tomorrow," Ron said, glancing about the room.

"Okay, see you!" The two girls left the shack.

* * *

Hermione sat in a corner of the Gryffindor Common room, waiting. Ron, Parvati and Lavender had been away for ages, where were they and what were they doing? No- she didn't want to ask herself that. But Ron… he'd never… But what was happening? Hermione hadn't felt this confused in a long time. So she sat silently in a corner, while everyone else talked and chatted around her, waiting. 

The portrait swung open and Hermione looked up. It was Parvati and Lavender, and they were smiling.

Hermione stood and walked over to them. They both saw her and seemed to try and melt into the crowd, but Hermione was too quick for them. She blocked them, and stood there, glowering at them. "I need to talk to you." She motioned to the portrait hall. Lavender and Parvati looked at each other and meekly followed her outside the common room and around the corner away from the Fat Lady.

Hermione stood facing them, but then looked away, her eyes were stinging with tears.

"Hermione? What's wrong?" she heard Lavender ask softly. Hermione put her hand to her face to try and stifle a sob, but both girls heard it.

"Hermione…"

"Don't try and act as if you don't know what's wrong!" Hermione hissed, turning back to face them. "I saw you, with him, with Ron, walking up to Hogsmeade! Know a nice place there, do you?" Her fists were clenched; her cheeks pink and eyes flashing while tears welled there.

"No, Hermione you don't understand!"

"Don't '_don't understand'_ me!" Hermione yelled. "I can't believe this!"

But then Lavender stepped forward. "I can't believe you don't trust Ron!"

"What are you talking about?" Hermione cried, tears now flowing down her cheeks. "I saw you! I saw you! You were going down with Ron to Hogsmeade!"

Parvati half smirked, but seemed to contain herself. But Hermione saw. "See! You're smirking!"

"Yeah, we were doing stuff with Ron," she said slyly. Hermione gave a cry of horror.

But Parvati wasn't finished. "In fact, why don't you go and ask him about it! He's in the shrieking shack."

Hermione stood there for a moment, looking from Parvati to Lavenders' face, and then turned and ran through the castle, on her way to the grounds. Thoughts were flashing through her head at a million miles per hour. She didn't know what to think, how could he? How could Ron do this to her! She had thought that he…

She ran down the grand staircase. Amazingly she hadn't seen anyone on her way, and as she reached the bottom of the staircase she paused and looked around at the side of it. She could still remember when Ron had shown her the secret room in the side of the stairs. She could still remember where they had had their first kiss…

She turned away from the staircase and ran out of the Entrance Hall out into the grounds. It was dark, and she couldn't see very well.

"Lumos!" she murmured, then continued down towards the huge tree set at the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest. She came to the huge tree and paused to wipe tears from her eyes, but then picked up a stick from the ground and angrily poked the knot on the trunk. She slid down the hole and getting up, started to run down the tunnel. Eventually the tunnel opened up and Hermione entered the Shrieking Shack. What she saw shocked her.

The room was completely unrecognisable. The walls were a creamy white and untarnished, the skirting board and a line at the top were magenta, there were flowers of all types around the room, though all were either white, pink or red. There were sofas, carpets and in the centre an enormous bed. And by the bed he stood, facing the other way and uncertainly poking some flowers from a vase into another position. But as Hermione entered, Ron turned around. His face turned from interest to shock.

"Hermione! What are you doing here- why are you crying? What's wrong?" he ran up to her and tried to take her face in his hands but she pushed him off.

SLAP

Ron blinked, mouth slightly open, his cheek burning. "Wha..?

"How could you?" Hermione sobbed. "Parvati… Lavender… I can't believe you. It thought you… I thought you…"

"Hermione!" He grabbed her wrist as she swung her hand again, stopping it a few inches from his face. "You've got it all wrong! I don't like Parvati and Lavender like that!"

"Yeah, whatever!" Hermione cried, trying to shake his hand from her own. "I saw you with your arms around them! And all those times you've been 'busy!' And that note in Potions! And anyway, Parvati just told me! And _let go of my arm!_"

But Ron didn't let go.

"Hermione," he said hoarsely. "Don't you see? This," he motioned to the room, "It's all for you. They've just been helping me, the girls, but, I mean it's all for you! It was going to be a surprise! Valentine's Day!"

"But…" Hermione muttered, confused. "Why would you do that?"

Ron sighed and removed his hand, but then placed both of his around her.

"Because, Hermione," he said, looking at her face. "I love you."

And then he kissed her.

* * *

So, hope you enjoyed this chapter, but please, please, please, please, please review! And this is your last chance to before this story is finished because this is our second last

chapter! So please! Even if you havn't reviewed before, you don't have to log in, you can just click the review button in the corner of the page and leave one anonymously if you want

to! Reviews really do make us write faster, we're not just saying that, we don't know when the next chapter will be up, but it should be up sooner then this one was. However one of

th reasons this was so late is that our computer broke down, and we lost all our files, including the half done chapter 11! So it wasn't entirely our fault.

Love,

Mkanda.


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